There are many whom society would be better off not having around, but surrendering control of lives to the State, a fallible human entity, is problematic. Should every political regime on earth be licensed to kill those they deem merit execution? In the US, it means killing the poor exclusively, since no person of means is ever killed in cold blood by the State. Some are proud of the United States joining with China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in leading the world in the practice. Others aspire to the progress that advanced, democratic nations have all made.
Pretty much where I'm coming from. A death is not going to bring another back to life, and the gov't mandating a death is sketchy at best. It's arbitrary. If I had committed a crime like OJ I would be hung. Money=freedom.
Right, but they don't execute for the same crimes as people are executed for in the US do they? Ridiculous examples. The death penalty in the US is equally barbaric? What's the answer? How is the gas chamber anything remotely similar to lethal injection? Why is it better? Because they would suffer more? This is certainly an argument which you could've made without the other stuff. What do you mean "camps?" Why do you think that you can speak for "any American?"
I am for the death penalty in theory. I am 100% against it in practice. Until we can make 100% sure that no one innocent gets executed, ( which is 100% impossible ) then we should not be executing anyone.
Some, who are eager to rail about the inadequacies of the State, in their eagerness to emulate China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and eschew the paradigm of advanced democracies with a Christian heritage and ethos, invest blind faith in government's amazing ability to kill only guilty people (who, in the US, in those states where state killings persist, are, invariably, poor.) Surrendering the power to kill folks in cold blood to any government is the ultimate in Statism.
The state not restricting abortion =\= the state performing abortion... You wouldn't say the state stopped a home invader that you stopped just because you did so lawfully, right?